Go to your skills, subset World Skills. Locate the skill Soul Trap. It is also a Damage over Time. Put it on your skill bar. If the mob is the correct level for the soul gem, and dies while under the DoT, it will fill the soul gem. Also, if you spend skill points, you can unlock a passive that you dont have to use the skill..

You can also cast the spell on multiple enemies, as long as they die on time, they will fill gems. Its good for getting them full fast by aoe. Also, be sure to get that passive.

You can purchase them from NPC vendors - Mystics, if I recall. They are usually found in the Mages Guilds, but can also be found in various shops/marketplaces, depending on the town.

You can also loot them from treasure chests in the world, and they drop from mobs.

When you complete a few of the main storyline with the prophet (soul magic rank 3 or so), you can also invest a skill point in a passive ability called soul lock in the soul magic line that will give you chance to fill an empty gem when you kill mobs with your weapon.

I probably should add that my characters are all low level so I am speaking from that viewpoint. Perhaps I will change my mind in the upper levels. But for now, I think soultrap is a complete waste.

redcomyn wrote: »

I see no need to waste a valuable skill bar slot for the soultrap spell. I have too many other skills and skill lines that I want to level up, ones that are actually usable in combat. So far, I have never used a soul gem, just don't see the use of them, except for occasionally using one for resurrecting on the spot. I find more than enough random filled soul gems (or just purchase) for that. As for recharging weapons, I would rather level up my enchanting skill and just put on new enchantments.

I wish ZoS had just done it the way it is done in other Elder Scroll games and use just putting a soultrap enchantment on the weapon.

Just roll around and do some farming and kill things with Soul Trap until you've filled up your gems. Then take Soul Trap off your skill bar and proceed to questing as normal. It shouldn't take that long to fill up 10-20 Soul Gems, which should be all you need for each main level.

redcomyn wrote: »

I see no need to waste a valuable skill bar slot for the soultrap spell. I have too many other skills and skill lines that I want to level up, ones that are actually usable in combat. So far, I have never used a soul gem, just don't see the use of them, except for occasionally using one for resurrecting on the spot. I find more than enough random filled soul gems (or just purchase) for that. As for recharging weapons, I would rather level up my enchanting skill and just put on new enchantments.

Soul gems are absolutely essential in group dungeons and PVP, where using them to resurrect other players is the only way to get your killed allies back into the fight. If you do either of those activities without a good supply of appropriately-leveled soul gems then you're going to have a serious negative impact on the effectiveness of your group.

In solo PVE, on the other hand, you almost never need soul gems. Pretty much just when you want to recharge your weapon's enchantment (and if you created the enchant using a purple or gold aspect rune, you're definitely going to want to recharge it rather than replace it with a new enchant when you're out of charges).

Sounds like there is more need for it than I thought, so I guess I will have to level soul trap. Thanks for the comments!